Particle accelerators for accelerating charged particles by electric fields are known in the art. They are used for accelerating charged particles, for example elementary particles, atomic nuclei or ionized atoms, to high speeds and energies. Particle accelerators are used in fundamental research as well as in medicine and for various industrial purposes.
DC voltage-operated particle accelerators use a high DC electric voltage for accelerating the particles. The maximum usable acceleration voltage is in this case primarily limited by the electric field strength occurring and by the resulting insulation outlay. This insulation outlay increases more than cubically with the voltage to be insulated.